Many have suspected that the US was already involved in sending heavy arms.

The administration has said that the previously hidden CIA operation in Benghazi involved finding, repurchasing and destroying heavy weaponry looted from Libyan government arsenals, but in October we reported evidence indicating that U.S. agents — particularly murdered ambassador Chris Stevens — were at least aware of heavy weapons moving from Libya to jihadist Syrian rebels.

There have been several possible SA-7 spottings in Syria dating as far back as early summer 2012, and there are indications that at least some of Gaddafi's 20,000 portable heat-seeking missiles were shipped before now.

On Sept. 6 a Libyan ship carrying 400 tons of weapons for Syrian rebels docked in southern Turkey. The ship's captain was "a Libyan from Benghazi" who worked for the new Libyan government. The man who organized that shipment, Tripoli Military Council head Abdelhakim Belhadj, worked directly with Stevens during the Libyan revolution.

Stevens' last meeting on Sept. 11 was with Turkish Consul General Ali Sait Akin, and a source told Fox News that Stevens was in Benghazi "to negotiate a weapons transfer in an effort to get SA-7 missiles out of the hands of Libya-based extremists."

Last month The Wall Street Journal reported that the State Department presence in Benghazi "provided diplomatic cover" for the now-exposed CIA annex. It follows that the "weapons transfer" that Stevens negotiated may have involved sending heavy weapons recovered by the CIA to the revolutionaries in Syria.

The newest report comes days before the U.S. is expected to recognize the newest Syrian coalition as the legitimate representative of the Syrian people. The State Department has also indicated it will soon name the opposition's highly effective al-Nusra Front a "terrorist organization" for its ties to Al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI).

Both of these stipulations — recognition of a unified opposition and creation of distance from extremists — are pivotal in order for the Obama administration to openly acknowledge supporting Syrian rebels with heavy weapons.

Romney called for this. it's good to see Obama is listening to important republican voices. Can't criticize him here.

You can't criticize him for supplying funding, equipment, weapons & training to AlQ and having the US citizen foot the bill? WTF!

Would you criticize him when you see these forms of assistance to rebels result in the destruction of the only debt-free country on the planet, the removal of legitimate rulers, and to the destabilization that threatens the American way of life? ...oh wait, ...that's already happened.

Would you criticize him when you see these forms of assistance to rebels result in American deaths? ...oh wait, ...that's already happened?

Would you criticize him when you see these forms of assistance to rebels result in increased debt to you, your children and grandchildren? ...oh wait, ...that's already happened.

Would you criticize him when hyperinflation sets in and your dollar devalues to the status of worthless Zimbabwe dollars? Is that what's it's going to take?

You can't criticize him for supplying funding, equipment, weapons & training to AlQ and having the US citizen foot the bill? WTF!

Would you criticize him when you see these forms of assistance to rebels result in the destruction of the only debt-free country on the planet, the removal of legitimate rulers, and to the destabilization that threatens the American way of life? ...oh wait, ...that's already happened.

Would you criticize him when you see these forms of assistance to rebels result in American deaths? ...oh wait, ...that's already happened?

Would you criticize him when you see these forms of assistance to rebels result in increased debt to you, your children and grandchildren? ...oh wait, ...that's already happened.

Would you criticize him when hyperinflation sets in and your dollar devalues to the status of worthless Zimbabwe dollars? Is that what's it's going to take?

You can't criticize him for supplying funding, equipment, weapons & training to AlQ and having the US citizen foot the bill? WTF!

Would you criticize him when you see these forms of assistance to rebels result in the destruction of the only debt-free country on the planet, the removal of legitimate rulers, and to the destabilization that threatens the American way of life? ...oh wait, ...that's already happened.

Would you criticize him when you see these forms of assistance to rebels result in American deaths? ...oh wait, ...that's already happened?

Would you criticize him when you see these forms of assistance to rebels result in increased debt to you, your children and grandchildren? ...oh wait, ...that's already happened.

Would you criticize him when hyperinflation sets in and your dollar devalues to the status of worthless Zimbabwe dollars? Is that what's it's going to take?

U.S. Troops Are Reported Back in Iraq Over Syrian Crisis New American ^ | Monday, 10 December 2012 12:45 | Jack Kenny

Posted on Monday, December 10, 2012 10:20:50 PM by Ernest_at_the_Beach

More than 3,000 U.S. military personnel have secretly returned to Iraq via Kuwait and 17,000 more are on their way in response to the civil war in Syria that has spilled over into northern Iraq, according to a report published Monday by Iran's Press TV.

The news follows by four days a report from the Russian news service RT that the aircraft carrier USS Eisenhower has joined the USS Iwo Jima off the coast of Syria. Both President Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week issued stern warnings to Syria about unspecified but serious "consequences" that would follow if government forces in Syria were to use chemical weapons against insurgents fighting to overthrow the government led by President Bashar al-Assad. The warnings came after reports that intelligence sources have reported signs of activity where the Assad regime is believed to have chemical weapons stored. At the same time, U.S. officials have expressed concern over the possibility that Jihadist elements among the rebel forces might capture those same weapons. Israel is worried — along with Western nations — that the militant Islamic group Hezbollah, an ally of Iran and enemy of Israel, might be among the rebels likely to get hold of and use chemical weapons.

The United States and other nations wanting to help the Syrian rebels in their efforts to topple the Assad regime are also concerned about Nusra Front, the one Syrian rebel group with the explicit "stamp of approval from al Qaeda," according to a New York Times report that identified the group as "a direct offshoot of Al Qaeda in Iraq." A veteran of the al-Qaeda force in Iraq, who said he has led the Nusra Front's efforts in Syria, is quoted in the Times as saying: "This is just a simple way of returning the favor to our Syrian brothers that fought with us on the lands of Iraq."

Faisal al-Maqdad, Syria's deputy foreign minister, denied last week that his government has chemical weapons and called the warnings a "pretext for invasion" of Syria by Western nations. "Syria stresses again, for the tenth, the hundredth time, that if we had such weapons, they would not be used against its people. We would not commit suicide," Maqdad, said in apparent recognition of the retaliation by outside forces that the use of such weapons would bring.

Without citing specific numbers of troops on the U.S. ships off the Syrian coast, RT reported that the Eisenhower is equipped to carry eight fighter-bombers and 8,000 men, while the Iwo Jima is designed to carry 2,500 U.S. Marines. RT last week also quoted an Australian news report of U.S. covert forces either in or very near Syria, ready to strike. "We have (US) special operations forces at the right posture, they don't have to be sent," an unnamed U.S. official told The Australian.

Germany's cabinet, meanwhile, has approved stationing Patriot anti-missile batteries on Turkey's border with Syria, a step requiring deployment of NATO troops and arousing fears by the Assad regime that the move is a prelude to an imposition of a no-fly zone in Syria to protect the rebels from aerial bombardment by government forces.

There has been no United Nations resolution authorizing the establishment of either a no-fly zone or of U.S. ground forces. More importantly for the United States, there has been no authorization from Congress, as the Constitution requires, for the Obama administration to intervene militarily in the Syrian conflict. There is, however, a long line of precedents of presidents waging war without congressional approval, including the aerial campaign ordered by President Obama in 2011 in a "humanitarian intervention" to save the rebel forces that toppled the Moammar Gadhafi regime in Libya. Anti-Western, militant Islamic groups involved in the fighting against Gadhafi's forces later participated in the September 11, 2012 attack on the U.S. diplomatic outpost in Benghazi that killed four Americans, including U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens.

"Western officials" are now reporting that Syrian soldiers have loaded a truck with chemical weapons for possible use, according to the Washington Post.

This comes with other reports that beleaguered Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad has prepped his Army for a fight, and that the U.S. has deployed at least 400 troops and batteries of Patriot missiles to the Turkish border.

Joby Warrick of the Post writes:

Surveillance photos confirmed that at least one army unit began loading special military vehicles that transport bombs and artillery shells carrying chemical warheads, according to the officials. The moves followed specific orders to elite troops to begin preparations for the use of the weapons against advancing rebel fighters, the officials said.

The intelligence estimate, coming late Thursday, counters another recent report, issued by Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta just days ago, that the threat of chemical weapons use by Syrian forces had "leveled off," according to CBS.

From the CBS report:

"We haven't seen anything new indicating any aggressive steps to move forward in that way," Panetta told reporters during a flight to Kuwait, adding that U.S. officials "continue to monitor it very closely and we continue to make clear to them that they should not under any means make use of these chemical weapons against their own population. That would produce serious consequences."

Reports are that at least one truck is loaded with weapons, though officials couldn't say whether it was on orders from Assad or possibly a general officer acting on his own. Assad has also begun dumping Scud missiles on advancing rebels, a move some say indicates desperation in Damascus.

Things also accelerated politically as the U.S. officially recognized the provisional Free Syrian Army, and Russia issued statements that would indicate their intelligence sees a possible rebel victory.

Barbara Starr of CNN reported that Russian official Defense Foreign Minister Mikhail Bodganov said, "the regime and the government in Syria are losing more and more control and more and more territory. Unfortunately, we cannot rule out the victory of the Syrian opposition."

Syria has steadily ceded ground to the rebels, giving up key supply lines, bases, and mount blistering assaults on an airport integral to the resupply of Assad in Damascus.

"It's at its lowest point yet," a senior U.S. official told Starr. "The trend is moving more rapidly than it has in the past."